Little Thieves follows Vanja Schmidt, a former maid who stole an enchanted pearl necklace and used it to steal the identity of the princess she was serving. She uses Princess Gisele’s identity and the false identity of a maid named Marthe to steal from the nobles. She is trying to save enough money to leave the kingdom and be free of her godmothers, Death and Fortune.
Death and Fortune (the godly personifications of these concepts) raised Vanja when she was a small child Her family gave her to them believing that she was bad luck because she is the thirteenth child who was born of a thirteenth child. Just when she thinks she can escape, she is cursed by a forest goddess named Eiswald for stealing a special ring from one of her worshipers. Vanja has until the full moon to give back what she stole or she will turn completely into jewels and die. To further complicate matters, when she returns to her castle she also discovers that a detective is on her trail for some unknown reason.
This book is definitely a good read. I highly recommend it to anyone who is into fantasy fiction books. It’s a fun book that I consider near-perfect. In my honest opinion, the best part of the story was the characters rather than the plot itself. Especially the main character Vanja Ros. She’s a very manipulative and cunning character but she’s also very warm and kind-hearted which I think is a personality combination that makes a character good and makes them stand out compared to the others.
If you enjoy this book, I recommend reading other books published by Margret Owen that are a part of the same series such as Painted Devils and Holy Terrors. Both feature the same main character years later in the timeline.
